ST. LOUIS (AP) — A local St. Louis advertisement raising awareness about heroin that ran during the Super Bowl could get a national audience.

KMOX Radio reports that there was an overwhelming response — both positive and negative — to the ad that shows a mother’s grief as she finds her son dead of a heroin overdose.

The ad juxtaposes a cheerful-sounding son with the image of a young man dying on his bed after an overdose.

Howard Weissman, director of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, based in suburban St. Louis, says nearly 2,300 people in the St. Louis area have died from heroin use since 2007.
Weissman has been told by national drug abuse officials they want the local ad to air all across the country.